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Pushing the task into three EVAs, the second spacewalk was a large success, as the duo removed the old PM from S1, whilst they prepared the translation of it replacement PM from the External Stowage Platform (ESP-2).<\/p>\n
EVA-3 couldn\u2019t have gone smoother, with the new PM eased into place, prior to the connection of electrical and fluid lines, with only a minor protest from QD M3 \u2013 as the Thermal Systems Officer on the ground initiated the flow of ammonia through the replacement, confirming all appeared to be well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWheels (Wheelock) mated and opened the M4 QD. This allows the ground to vent the N2 from the new PM through the ATA (Ammonia Tank Assembly). Next the crew will mate the M1, M2 and M3 QDs. In parallel with this work, the ground will fill the PM with ammonia from the ATA and then the crew will open the remaining QDs,\u201d noted the Mission Evaluation Room (MER) during the EVA (L2).<\/p>\n
\u201cM3 has been mated and the PM has been filled with NH3 from the ATA. The crew had a tough time getting M3 aligned, but after a bit of QD manipulation, they managed to get the QD properly seated. Both crew and ground teams are doing an excellent job. All QDs have been mated and valves are open. There were no indications of a leak and the system appears to be solid.\u201d<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A321.jpg\" "\\"A32\\"")
With the EVA tasks complete, controllers on the ground wasted no time in giving the new PM a quick \u201cspin\u201d to test its status via what is known as a bump test. This short test provided the positive data they had hoped for.<\/p>\n\u201cPump has been started\u2026 looks good. Loop A has been repressurized and the pump is up and running. Pump performance from a quick data review looks nominal. We\u2019ll leave the pump running overnight to watch the system and then step into the power reconfiguration and final loop activation.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was noted during the EVA that a full return to life for the PM and the Loop A cooling on the ETCS would be completed no later than Thursday.<\/p>\n
ISS Flight Director Courtenay McMillan updated her team on Wednesday (memo acquired by L2) with news of a major milestone in the comeback from the initial failure.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A312.jpg\" "\\"A3\\"")
\u201cWe\u2019re not done with the reconfigurations & power-ups yet \u2013 the team is working to bring JEM and Columbus up right now \u2013 but here\u2019s an awesome milestone: the Caution & Warning display up on the big screen in FCR1 (Flight Control Room) is clean \u2013 no more red & yellow \u2013 for the first time since the pump failed. WOW!!!<\/p>\n\u201cWe had our final post-EVA debrief conference with the crew this morning (Wednesday). MCC has been keeping them up to date as work progresses to bring all the systems back online in their nominal configuration, which they\u2019re happy to hear. They asked us to pass along their thanks and congratulations again to the whole team \u2013 and they\u2019re looking forward to celebrating with everyone when they get back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bringing the ISS back to a nominal configuration has taken a huge amount of work behind the scenes, from engineers to controllers, from managers to astronauts running simulated EVAs in the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC).<\/p>\n
Deserved thanks were passed on from FD McMillan, along with a note that further work will be conducted via the NASA tradition of \u201cLessons Learned\u201d \u2013 potentially with evaluations into the potential root cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cTHANK YOU for all your long hours and hard work. It took the dedication and determination of every person on the team to get this job done, and that is surely recognized. I hope everyone gets a chance to rest and recuperate,\u201d noted the FD.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn true NASA tradition, we\u2019ll have some Lessons Learned discussions mixed in with the celebratory \u2018debriefs\u2019 over the next couple weeks. Until then \u2013 thank you again, and enjoy the clear view on the big board!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A542.jpg\" "\\"A54\\"")
With FD McMillan also receiving praise for her leadership during the troubleshooting, the \u201cLessons Learned\u201d effort is already being set up into the timeline of the failed module, with notes that the PM was already showing signs of problems month\u2019s prior to the eventual Loop A failure on the ETCS.<\/p>\n\u201cGreat job to the entire team on the Loop A pump R&R. Special Kudos to Courtenay McMillan for all the work she did to get these EVAs completed,\u201d noted a separate ISS memo (L2).<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was data on the pump module back in February to show that this pump was going south, but this was not seen by the folks looking at the trending pump data. (Manager) has asked for an assessment of what data the MER folks are looking at to ensure that we can see failures like this in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bringing the failed PM back to Earth has been openly noted as desirable, allowing engineers to take the module apart to find out priceless engineering data that will be used in relation to the replacement now providing the cooling, and other spare PMs on Station.<\/p>\n
Such a return is not possible on STS-133 or STS-134 \u2013 although the notional STS-135 could be used to bring the hardware back to Earth.<\/p>\n
The decision on whether to proceed with STS-135, by way of NASA approval, is expected as soon as next week \u2013 along with preliminary plans for Atlantis\u2019 payload bay configuration, and a potential return slot for the old PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After three epic EVAs, International Space Station (ISS) managers are celebrating their orbital outpost\u2019s staged return to a nominal condition, as the replacement Pump Module on the External Thermal Control System (ETCS) Loop A provides the required cooling to the numerous systems that were forced to shut down after the July 31 failure. ISS Good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-40684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-iss"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}